Castle Hopoxia (One-shot)

Castle Hopoxia was a Dread one-shot which was played in two parts on the 27th of May and the 5th of June, 2019, respectively. It was the first story hosted by Simon and the first to be part of the Simonatic Multiverse. It also remains the only story to be part of the fantasy-timeline.

It starred the death row criminals Shae De’maan, Anders Dolf, Dominicin Phil Traitor and Icing Badsongs as they fought to earn their freedom back by choosing the Castle over hanging.

Geography
Castle Hopoxia sits at the center of Hopoxia County. The castle is among the oldest in all of the Kingdom of Alaxas, but is as fortified and valuable as it is ancient. It is regarded as a marvel and a mystery how ahead of its time it was and still is. But it is not just its construction that makes it strategically valuable, but also its position. Since Hopoxia County is in the west of the Kingdom of Alaxas, its western border to the neighboring Kingdom of Gelong made sieging this castle a high priority for the monarchy for centuries.

History
For hundreds of years, the castle could not be successfully sieged and the mere idea was regarded as an impossibility. Only one thing about Hopoxia Castle was certain; all who entered perished. Sometimes a loud scream would echo through the castle walls and the hill they sit upon, while other times they were simply never heard from again. Many Alaxan expeditions and sieges had been made throughout history, but none had succeeded. At worst, they resulted in thousands of horrific deaths. And for a time, the best merely resulted in a decent mapping of the courtyard.

About a century ago, the Kingdom of Alaxas unofficially gave up. They stopped their sieges and they stopped their expeditions. Instead, all that was remaining of their involvement was the Kelf-compromise. Olof Kelf was the Hopoxian sheriff who proposed that Alaxas stop wasting good soldiers on the castle and instead send in volunteering criminals on death row in exchange for their freedom should they succeed in taking it. After some deliberation, the royal council and the King accepted this proposal.

Almost all criminals chose the Castle initially, but because of a consistent 100% mortality rate accompanied by gruesome rumors, it only took about a decade until the volunteers stopped coming. To fix that, Kelf then granted volunteers 1) the meal of their choice the preceding evening, and 2) an item of their choice to bring with them into the Castle. As long as the requests were reasonable, the government would try their best to accommodate them. This boosted numbers for a while, but even that failed to last more than a few years. There were still the occasional foolhardy convicts in the coming decades, but they were extremely rare. It therefore came as a huge shock when in the span of a month, six criminals coincidentally all chose the castle. The first, Mark Ronwall, was sent in on his own. After that, when the government noticed that more volunteers came in, they decided to wait until a team could be formed to increase the chances of success.

That team was composed of Shae De’maan, Anders Dolf, Dominicin Phil Traitor and Icing Badsongs.

Shae De’maan
Shae De'maan was a notorious smuggler and former spy well known in the underworld. He was eventually caught and sentenced to death for smuggling letters across the border to the Kingdom of Gelong.

He was known for his stealthy abilities, sleight of hand and quick reflexes. His lesser qualities included being a compulsive liar, lonely, impulsive and possessing a fear of ghosts. Despite this phobia, he still chose the Castle, naively driven by his overconfidence.

His item of choice was a cryptex, for deciphering ancient languages.

Anders Dolf
Anders Dolf, commonly stylized as A. Dolf, was a known fascist and riotous instigator. Charismatic and highly motivated, he was caught attempting to stage a coup for his own insidious political gain.

He chose the castle out of a near fanatical belief in himself and his destiny to rule. His only known fear was the cold, beyond which nothing could keep him from his faith. He chose to bring in a journal to the castle, so he could write down his beliefs.

Dominicin Phil Traitor
Dominicin Phil Traitor was a spy from the Kingdom of Gelong sent to infiltrate the Kingdom of Alaxas. While noted as being vigilant, jumpy and paranoid, Dominicin was still highly agile and skilled in the arts of stealth and espionage.

He chose the castle believing to be carrying information that was too crucial to die with him. His item of choice was a homing pigeon, so they could perhaps still get a message out to the world should they be all be fatally wounded.

Icing Badsongs
Icing Badsongs was the eldest of the team. He used to be a bard of mediocre fame until he retired to live in peace with his dog. Despite his bad back and non-existent stamina, Icing was still wise and strong beyond his years, with an impressive beard to boot. He proved himself a capable fighter when he committed mass murder, targeting victims who enjoyed pineapple on pizza. For this crime, he was sentenced to death.

Not wanting his dog to die alone, he chose the castle for the small chance of reuniting with him and brought with him his old cane-flute.

Summary
The team, equipped with a journal, cryptex and homing pigeon, went on top of the castle wall using a ladder and were then on their own. They had archers trained on them, should they try to jump off and run away from the castle. They had been given a look at a map of the castle courtyard beforehand, so its layout was previously known to them.

They quickly navigated their way down into the courtyard where they found a few buildings, like the blacksmiths and the stables. This is where they found their first clue: a page from a journal. It was written by Mark Ronwall, the convict sent in before them about a month prior. Evidently, he chose to bring a journal into the castle as his item, and on this first page he introduces himself and outlines his plan to make sure his knowledge passes on to whoever is sent in after him.

The team made it into the gatehouse and found that the portcullis was open. They made their way through the main door and entered the castle, whose door closed behind them. Once inside, they entered a giant hall with a chandelier in the ceiling. On one of the walls they found three words written in blood: "CASTLE IMMORTALITY WISDOM ". Through the ceiling they reported hearing lumbering ominous footsteps of an entity possessing the castle. As they began quietly searching the rooms, Shae decided to check for traps by rolling a skull along the floor of an adjacent chapel room. The echoes of the skull making its way down the isle seemed to alert the entity of their presence: and sent them all into hiding.

The entity came to the hall and through the crack beneath the door, Anders caught a glance of its lanky, robe clad and whitened feet before it moved on and disappeared deeper into the castle. Searching the rooms of the castle meticulously, while staying on their toes as to not make any noise, the team managed to scrounge for clues as to what was going on. They found more wall writings, this time reading "FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN". They also found more journal entries from Mark, as well as older entries from an ancient priest.

The priest's writings, once translated with the cryptex, revealed that there used to be a Lord Hopoxia who found a genie to grant him three wishes. Firstly, the Lord wished for the most secure and formidable castle ever built. Secondly, the Lord wished to never die. And lastly, the Lord wished for wisdom. The priest wrote that the last wish made the Lord depressed, unresponsive and at times hostile. In his final entry, it is all but confirmed that the entity was what was left of Lord Hopoxia, who had turned violent and slain his own household. The priest managed to slice a finger off of the Lord in self-defense, which he had since pickled believing to be a necessary ingredient to stop him. It is thought that the priest was also slain shortly thereafter.

Ronwall's writings reveal that he had figured out that there was a way to defeat the entity. From what he could gather in the library before he had to hide, he concluded that one needs to call out the entity's full name, followed by a curse while performing a ritual. The entity's name was revealed to be an anagram of xenophobia, or the fear of the unknown. The team find the curse and use the priest's own spellbook to translate it to mean: "Cast away thine anger, pride and earthly shackles. Begone from this realm and join your forefathers." In the library, the team also figure out that the ritual is simply burning a part of the entity while casting the curse.

The first death of this excursion would occur in the right castle tower. Believing the entity to be currently residing in the chapel connecting to the tower on the bottom floor, Shae De'maan slowly made his way down the spiral staircase from the second floor to have a look. Through an unfortunate accident, Shae slipped on the old, worn-down steps and fell down right into the path and rage of the entity itself. Dominicin, also being in the staircase, quickly made a break for it and hid, barely managing to survive the encounter.

When the surviving three members of the team made it to the basement, they were shocked to discover that Mark Ronwall was somehow still alive, barricaded inside the pantry. There, he had managed to live a month on a diet consisting of ancient honey, jerky and masinuts. Together, they at this time possessed everything they needed to slay Lord Hopoxia: the curse alongside flammable powder, flint and the pickled finger to burn. They needed only to figure out the entity's full name. The remaining letters of xenophobia not in Hopoxia were E-N-B. Icing figured out that the beings first name had to be Ben, short for Benjamin.

In a noble act of pure selflessness, the great Anders Dolf chose to sacrifice his own life to call upon and distract Lord Hopoxia for long enough for Icing to cast the curse and Dominicin to burn the finger. Thus, by their abilities combined, the Lord was granted passage to the afterlife, and the castle could fall into mortal hands. All that remained of Benjamin Hopoxia were his crystal eyes, which the surviving team members used to unlock the hatch to his office. When inside the Lords office, there they found that Hopoxia possessed a crystal ball which would show him whenever he had intruders. From there, they could also unlock the main courtyard gate, opening the castle up to the world.

Mark Ronwall, Dominicin Phil Traitor and Icing Badsongs would walk out of the castle as free men and heroes. Shae De'maan and Anders Dolf, while perished, would instead be spoken of as legends and martyrs.